READER PHOTO

PhillyCorners

Neighborhoods by Tom Gralish - OLNEY - The stretch of North Fifth Street above and below the intersection with Olney Avenue has for decades been one of the city's prime retail destinations. Chahye Won and Nicole Kim drove down, from Levittown and Newtown, respectively, with their friend Joon Choi of Center City to shop in the area's many Asian specialty stores. They also came specifically to make some photo stickers, in a curtained booth at the Lotte Shop in the 5900 block, which cranks out sheets of stamp-sized self-adhesive sticker color pictures (the girls gave Choi one to stick on his cell phone). Store owner Savina Oh (not shown) watched the updated version of old arcade portrait booths become popular, especially with teenaged girls, in Sanrio's "Hello Kitty" stores in Japan, and bought her first one two years ago. Her store, which sells Korean gifts, books, household items and cosmetics, now has three of the machines. "All kids love it," she says. "They even come up here from South Street."

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A selection of images by The Inquirer's staff photographer Tom Gralish who from 1998-2001 chronicled life in the many neighborhoods in Philadelphia.
The images were published in a for a weekly column.
See more of Tom's work in his blog at Scene On The Road